The story behind Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" Lydia Hutchinson | May 11, 2014 | 14 Comments “I’d like to write a great peace song,” Irving Berlin told a journalist in 1938, “but it’s hard to do, because you have trouble dramatizing peace.” Years before John Lennon or Bob Dylan were even born, Berlin took up the challenge of penning an anthem that would inspire his fellow men to live in harmony. As America’s most successful songwriter, the 50-year-old Berlin had already lived through one world war, and with the rise of Nazi Germany, he knew a second was brewing. He recalled, “I worked for a while on a song called ‘Thanks America,’ but I didn’t like it. I tried again with a song called ‘Let’s Talk About Liberty,’ but I didn’t get very far. It was too much like making a speech to music. It then occurred to me to reexamine an old song of mine, ‘God Bless America.’” Berlin’s practice of “going to the trunk,” where he squirreled away every verse, chorus and half-finished idea he ever wrote, often got him out of songwriting jams.

He’d come up with “God Bless America” in 1918, while serving in the Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y. It was intended for a military revue called Yip Yip Yaphank. His musical secretary Harry Ruby remembered, “There were so many patriotic songs coming out at the time. Every songwriter was pouring them out. I said, ‘Geez, another one?’” Berlin decided Ruby was right, calling the song “just a little sticky.” He cut it from the score, stashing it away in his trunk. Two decades later, Berlin saw new hope in the old tune. “I had to make one or two changes in the lyrics, and they in turn led me to a slight change and improvement in the melody, one line in particular. The original ran: ‘Stand beside her and guide her to the right with a light from above.’ In 1918, the phrase ‘to the right’ had no political significance, as it has now.

So for obvious reasons, I changed the phrase to ‘Through the night with a light from above.’” Pleased with the revamped song—he packed a lot into its compact five-line frame—Irving searched for the right singer to introduce it. Kate Smith was 200 pounds of wholesome country girl goodness, a vaudeville singer who’d entertained WWI troops when she was 8 years old and gone on to host her own CBS radio show, with millions of devoted listeners. On Nov. 11, 1938, Smith sang “God Bless America” as part of her Armistice Day broadcast (anniversary of the end of WWI). The song tapped into the national psyche, offering a kind of collective prayer for the unease over impending war. Within days, it was being hailed as the new national anthem. Sheet music flew off the shelves. Smith was booked for personal appearances, including major league baseball games and the 1939 World’s Fair. School bands played the song relentlessly. Without any hype or plugging, Berlin’s anthem became a sensation. In 1940, both the Republican and Democratic parties adopted the song as their theme.

Realizing that it would look improper to collect royalties on a patriotic ode, Berlin established a trust, the God Bless America Fund, which distributed all proceeds to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America. The song wasn’t without its critics. Certain Democrats called the song jingoistic, questioning why God should bless America and no other country, and what about separation of church and state? Others griped about Berlin’s pedigree. As a Russian Jew who immigrated to the U.S. in 1893, why should he speak for America? A prominent pastor in New York, Edgar Franklin Romig, grabbed headlines by calling the song a “specious substitute for religion.” One songwriter who didn’t like Berlin’s anthem was Woody Guthrie. It’s said that he got so fed up with hearing Kate Smith on the radio, he wrote a rebuttal in “This Land Is Your Land.” In the original version of Guthrie’s classic, he painted pictures of a desolate, corrupt country, ending each verse with “God blessed America for you and me.” In the wake of 9/11, the song took on a new life, once again signalling renewed patriotism and pride.

Celine Dion performed it on the TV special A Tribute to Heroes and her version climbed into the Top 40. As for Irving Berlin, he lived to the ripe old age of 101, passing away in 1989. Though his incredible legacy of songs ranges from the glitzy (“Putting On the Ritz”) to the sentimental (“Always”) to the seasonal (“White Christmas”), “God Bless America” remains one of his most personal achievements. As his daughter Mary Ellin Barrett said, “I came to understand that it wasn’t ‘God Bless America, land that we love.’ It was ‘God bless America, land that I love.’ It was an incredibly personal statement that my father was making, that anybody singing that song makes as they sing it. And I understood that that song was his ‘thank you’ to the country that had taken him in. It was the song of the immigrant boy who made good.” — By Bill DeMain 6 Things You Didn't Know About the Song 'God Bless America' 6 Things You Didn't Know About the Song 'God Bless America' August 6, 2013 – 8:50 AM 3 Classic Comfort Food Recipes with a Healthy Twist! St.

Louis Cardinals Matt Holliday, Jon Jay, and Allen Craig stand for the performance of 'God Bless America' during the seventh inning stretch in Game Three of the 2011 MLB World Series in Arlington, Texas.(Getty Images) In her new book, God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song , music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz reveals fascinating, little-known facts about this patriotic tune. Below, she shares six things Americans may not know about the “other national anthem.” If you grew up in the United States, chances are you can sing “God Bless America.” You might not remember exactly where you learned it, but you probably know most of the words, and you may find yourself singing along with the simple melody. Although it has become a part of our American consciousness, the history of “God Bless America” is more complex than it seems. Here are some things about the song that may surprise you: 1. It was written by the same composer who wrote “White Christmas.” “God Bless America” has attained the “composerless” status of an anthem or a folk song, but it has roots in Tin Pan Alley .

Irving Berlin—who would go on to write classics like “White Christmas” and “Easter Parade”—originally wrote the song in 1918 as the finale to an all-soldier revue called Yip, Yip, Yaphank, but he ultimately decided not to include it, tucking it away in his trunk of discarded songs. 2. When it was first performed by Kate Smith in 1938, it was considered a “peace song.” Today, “God Bless America” is often used as a symbol of support for war, sung by soldiers in uniform at baseball games and other events. But when Irving Berlin rediscovered his old song in 1938, he had been looking for a “peace song” as a response to the escalating conflict in Europe. He made changes to it and gave it to radio star Kate Smith to perform on her radio show on the eve of the first official celebration of Armistice Day—a holiday originally conceived to commemorate world peace and honor veterans of the Great War.

(The peace part would be dropped in 1954, when it became Veteran’s Day.) In announcing the song’s premiere on her daytime talk show, Kate Smith declared, “As I stand before the microphone and sing it with all my heart, I’ll be thinking of our veterans and I’ll be praying with every breath I draw that we shall never have another war.” 3. It was boycotted by the Ku Klux Klan. Since Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant (born Israel Baline, the son of a Jewish cantor who fled persecution in Europe), there were some who questioned both his right to evoke God and to call the United States his “home sweet home.” In 1940, the song was boycotted by the KKK and the Nazi-affiliated German American Bund, and the newspaper of a domestic pro-Nazi organization printed a screed against the song, in which the author wrote, “[I do] not consider G-B-A a ‘patriotic’ song, in the sense of expressing the real American attitude toward his country, but consider that it smacks of the ‘How glad I am’ attitude of the refugee horde.” 4. It has a long connection with sporting events.

“God Bless America” was added to the seventh inning stretch after the September 11th attacks in 2001, but this was not the first time the song had become part of our national pastime or other sports. In 1940, it was played at every Brooklyn Dodgers home game, as well as during halftime at college football games. In 1966, the Chicago White Sox briefly replaced the national anthem with “God Bless America,” a song the team felt was easier for fans to sing, though Irving Berlin himself urged the team to return to the national anthem. In the 1970s, replacing the anthem with “God Bless America” became a good-luck charm for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team. In fact, the song and Kate Smith’s performance of it have taken on near-mythic status within the culture of the Flyers, who often invited the singer to perform it live and later erected a statue in Smith’s honor outside the stadium. Some even argue that the phrase “It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings” originates with Smith’s live performances of “God Bless America” at Flyers games. 5.

It first appeared in film in This is the Army (1943), starring Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan is known as the first politician who made the intertwining of politics and religion a political imperative, and he made copious use of both the song and phrase “God Bless America” at campaign rallies and presidential events. So it is a satisfying and intriguing coincidence that Reagan, who would become so strongly associated with “God Bless America,” was the star of the 1943 film This is the Army, in which the song made its movie debut —in fact, Reagan first appears on screen while the song is playing, during a reenactment of Kate Smith’s premiere of the song on her radio show. 6. It is a source of revenue for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Though embraced as an unofficial anthem, “God Bless America” has roots in the Tin Pan Alley music business, and has always had a hidden commercial side, with royalties collected for any performance in commercial contexts.

But Irving Berlin himself has never made money on the song; in 1940, he created the God Bless America Fund, through which all royalties have been donated to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (now focused on the scouts in the greater New York City area). The song will remain under copyright until the year 2034. For more on the history of “God Bless America,” check out Sheryl Kaskowitz’s book. Watch Kate Smith sing “God Bless America”: A member has started a discussion. Click "Read Comment" to view. Leave A Comment Uh-oh! Empty comment.It looks as though you’ve already said that.You seem to be logged out. Refresh your page, login and try again.Whoops! Sorry, comments are currently closed. You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down. Login Kate Smith, God Bless America - YouTube Kate Smith, God Bless America Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Nov 21, 2012 God Bless America is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version was recorded by Kate Smith, and became her signature song. Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith, on her radio show. This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone.

The screenplay by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon was based on the 1942 Broadway musical by Irving Berlin, who also composed the film's 19 songs and broke screen protocol by singing one of them. The movie features a large ensemble cast, including George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Alan Hale, Sr., Rosemary DeCamp, and Lt. Ronald Reagan, while both the stage play and film included soldiers of the U.S. Army who were actors and performers in civilian life. One of the film's highlights is Irving Berlin himself singing his song "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." Berlin's natural singing voice was so soft that the recording volume had to be increased significantly in order to record acceptably. George Murphy as Jerry Jones Joan Leslie as Eileen Dibble George Tobias as Maxie Twardofsky Alan Hale, Sr. as Sgt. McGee Kate Smith as Herself Ronald Reagan as Cpl. Johnny Jones Jack Young as Franklin D. Roosevelt George Murphy and Ronald Reagan would run for public office in California. George Murphy served one term, (1965--1971) in the U.S. Senate.

Ronald Reagan served two terms as Governor of California (1967--1975) and then President of the United States (1981--1989), with both contributing to each other's Republican campaigns. Reagan would warmly and jokingly refer to Murphy, who preceded him into politics by a couple of years, as "my John the Baptist." Many Editorial Thanks To Wiki... Category God Bless America (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress Gift of the Berlin Family (67.7) Copyright 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin Copyright renewed 1965, 1966 by Irving Berlin Copyright assigned to Winthrop Rutherfurd, Jr., Anne Phipps Sidamon-Eristoff, and Theodore R. Jackson as Trustees of the God Bless America Fund. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. America's unofficial national anthem was composed by an immigrant who left his home in Siberia for America when he was only five years old.

The original version of "God Bless America" was written by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island, for his Ziegfeld-style revue, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. "Make her victorious on land and foam, God Bless America..." ran the original lyric. However, Berlin decided that the solemn tone of "God Bless America" was somewhat out of keeping with the more comedic elements of the show and the song was laid aside. In the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe, Berlin decided to write a "peace" song. He recalled his "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier and made some alterations to reflect the different state of the world. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised "God Bless America" during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. The song was an immediate sensation; the sheet music was in great demand. Berlin soon established the God Bless America Fund, dedicating the royalties to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.

Berlin's file of manuscripts and lyric sheets for this quintessentially American song includes manuscripts in the hand of Berlin's longtime musical secretary, Helmy Kresa (Berlin himself did not read and write music), as well as lyric sheets, and corrected proof copies for the sheet music. These materials document not only the speed with which Berlin revised this song, but also his attention to detail. The first proof copy is dated October 31, 1938; the earliest "final" version of the song is a manuscript dated November 2; and Kate Smith's historic broadcast took place on November 11. These documents show the song's step-by-step evolution from the original version of 1918 to the tune we now know. These manuscripts are part of the Irving Berlin Collection, a remarkable collection that includes Berlin's personal papers as well as the records of the Irving Berlin Music Corp. It was presented to the Library of Congress in 1992, by Berlin's daughters, Mary Ellin Barrett, Linda Louise Emmet, and Elizabeth Irving Peters. The following is an excerpt from God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song by Sheryl Kaskowitz, out now from Oxford University Press .

Irving Berlin was the master of writing songs with lyrics vague enough to become universal, and “God Bless America” may represent the pinnacle of this art. The lack of specificity in the song’s lyrics has allowed the song to embody multiple, sometimes contrary, points of view, with shifting meanings that depend upon who is singing and listening as well as upon the context of any given performance. Who is the “I” in “land that I love”? Who claims America as “my home sweet home”? What hardship is signified by “the night,” and in what direction does the country need to be guided? Whose god is being invoked? Advertisement In 1938, Berlin changed his original World War I–era lyrics from “guide her to the right” to “through the night,” because by 1938 “the right” had acquired associations with fascism. But the idea of a move “to the right” is quite relevant in looking at the changing meaning of “God Bless America” through time, as it began to be associated with increasingly conservative points of view.

In February 1991, during the final weeks of the first Iraq war, a man stood up to protest the war at the First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, Maine, where President George H. W. Bush was in attendance. As he spoke, members of the congregation tried to drown out the protest by singing “God Bless America.” This church confrontation is an example of the song’s use as a means to silence dissent, becoming a virtual anthem for those who wanted things to stay exactly as they were. Get Slate in your inbox. But “God Bless America” didn’t always have such connections to conservatism. Just after its debut in 1938, the song was weighted with a subtext of religious, ethnic, and racial tolerance, as Irving Berlin’s immigrant success story connected the song to a burgeoning public appeal for ethnic and racial tolerance during the 1940s. And during the 1940 presidential campaign, both FDR and his Republican challenger Wendell Willkie adopted “God Bless America”—then at the height of its prewar popularity—as campaign theme songs.

This bipartisan use followed the wishes of Irving Berlin, who wrote in July 1940, “no political party has the exclusive rights to the song ‘God Bless America.’ ” The chameleon-like lyrics of “God Bless America” made it a powerful vehicle for a wide range of meanings during the 25 years after its debut. In its early years, the most common use of “God Bless America” within protest contexts served an anti-Communist message, likely drawing on the song’s invocation of religion and patriotism as a symbolic weapon against “Godless Communism.” A group of teenagers sang it to disrupt a Communist meeting in a downtown Milwaukee park in 1941, and in 1947 war veterans broke up a Communist party rally in Bridgeport by singing it. But “God Bless America” was also embraced as a protest song on the left during this period, sung by striking garment workers in Brooklyn in 1941, and by subway workers protesting a lockout in 1956. Civil rights activists also used the song frequently in the early 1960s.

Within a two-day period in early summer 1963, young African-American students sang “God Bless America” at school segregation protests in Jackson, Miss., and Baton Rouge, La., hinting, perhaps, at a strategic, unified use of the song by the movement. After all, what could be threatening about schoolchildren, some as young as nine, peacefully singing that staple of elementary school music programs, declaring their love for God and country in support of their right to an equal education? Advertisement “God Bless America” seems to have come into its own as a conservative anthem in response to the antiwar movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

At a “Read-in for Peace in Vietnam” at New York’s Town Hall in February 1966, a police detective was booed off the stage after seizing the microphone and trying to sing “God Bless America.” The song became a staple at pro-war rallies, and was often used as a sonic weapon in conflicts with anti-war protestors, such as a confrontation in 1973 between pro-war construction workers and peace rally participants in which a “pro-Administration crowd sang ‘God Bless America’ at an antiwar group who confronted them with peace signs.” These changes in the uses of “God Bless America” over time point to larger shifts in the discourse of patriotism. During World War II, the song was used on the home front to represent American domestic values of tolerance and inclusion in the face of Nazi totalitarianism. But within the context of the Vietnam War, the song’s use was linked with a claim to the virtue of America’s conduct in the world at large, a claim that progressives could not support. Those opposed to the war could not “bless” America’s violence in Vietnam, and this shame over the country’s conduct meant that the language of patriotism was increasingly ceded to a conservative point of view.

The generational rifts that became so apparent in the 1960s, with the rise of a youth culture increasingly disenchanted with the mores of its elders, also influenced the shifting meanings of “God Bless America.” For older Americans, this song was likely tinged with nostalgia, invoking memories of Kate Smith and the cozy shared community of radio, for the united sacrifice of the World War II home front, and perhaps for a musical world dominated by Tin Pan Alley, rather than the alien sounds of rock ’n’ roll. For those born after World War II, “God Bless America” was likely a song they were forced to sing in elementary school, or one they heard on one of their parents’ corny TV shows, devoid of any cultural meaning other than its simple patriotic religiosity and the bland mainstream that the youth of the 1960s rebelled against. The historian Lisa McGirr points to the early and mid-1960s as the beginning of a “conservative revival,” dubbing religious conservatives to be the “other radicals of the 1960s” and framing the Right as a grassroots social movement during this period.

If conservatives can be understood as revolutionaries reacting against the progressive social change movements of the 1960s, then “God Bless America” was their “We Shall Overcome,” used by activists expressing opposition to progressive social movements like school integration, women’s rights, and abortion. In the late 1960s, it was played by the extreme right organization the John Birch Society at a Memorial Day parade in Norwalk, Conn., and became a political anthem for the segregationist politician Lester Maddox, who played it no less than three times at one public event and often proclaimed that he sang it “with all of my heart.” Advertisement Richard Nixon, who was swept into office by conservatives reacting against the 1960s counterculture, made regular political use of “God Bless America.” He inserted the phrase into his speeches on several occasions, but late in his presidency he began to sing the song himself, sometimes accompanying himself on the piano. In May 1973, Nixon and Irving Berlin led the crowd in singing “God Bless America” at a state dinner for POWs recently returned from Vietnam.

At a White House dinner in March 1974, “God Bless America” was among the songs sung by Pearl Bailey, accompanied by the president on the piano. That same month, Nixon played the piano and sang at the opening of the new Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. Nixon’s forays into musical performance just four months before his resignation were likely meant to distract the country from the escalating Watergate scandal, but for some they had the opposite effect. Russell Baker derided the “clownishness of this public straining to play the nice guy,” and there is certainly something contrived about the president’s public piano recitals and their accompanying media coverage during that fraught political climate. But Nixon’s performances effectively cemented the relationship between the song “God Bless America” and conservative politics, which continued with Reagan’s presidency. In The God Strategy , an account of the incorporation of religion into 20th- and 21st-century American politics, David Domke and Kevin Coe argue that it was Ronald Reagan who first made the intertwining of politics and religion a political imperative, and he made copious use of both the song and phrase “God Bless America” at campaign rallies and presidential events.

It is a satisfying and intriguing coincidence that Reagan, who would become so strongly associated with “God Bless America,” was the star of the 1943 film This Is the Army, in which the song made its movie debut—in fact, Reagan first appears on screen while the song is playing, during a reenactment of Kate Smith’s premiere of the song on her radio show. President Reagan’s copious use of “God Bless America” served as a signal to conservatives, sending a message to his evangelical base that he would not shrink from infusing his politics with religion. This was a critical part of what Domke and Coe have dubbed the “God strategy,” which entails maintaining a primarily secular agenda to avoid alienating moderate Americans, while finding ways to signal sympathy for the views of religious conservatives. “God Bless America” was the perfect conduit for such a message. It was a patriotic song that children learned in school, but it acquired new meanings beginning in the mid-1960s, as it was wielded by Christian conservatives in battles against secular liberalism.

When FDR adopted “God Bless America” as his 1940 campaign song, it represented an embrace of cultural and religious tolerance; by 1980, the Christian Right used the song to signal an incorporation of faith and values into politics. At a 1984 meeting of religious broadcasters at which Reagan appeared, attendees “virtually serenaded” the president with “God Bless America,” and the singer and conservative icon Pat Boone boomed through the microphone, “How wonderful to have a President who believes these words.” The words may have remained the same, but the meaning of “God Bless America” has drifted rightward over the course of the twentieth century. --- The History and Legacy of “God Bless America” - Chuck Miller Chuck Miller Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members. The History and Legacy of “God Bless America” By Chuck Miller on July 3, 2010 at 3:07 AM 2 NOTE: I wrote this article for Goldmine magazine; it was published in October 2001, just immediately after the September 11th terrorist attacks. I worked with Richard K.

Hayes of the Kate Smith Commemorative Society on the original article. This article has been updated for this blog post reprinting. They stood at the steps of the Capitol, Democrats and Republicans who on any other day would argue health care reform or pork-barrel bills in the great Rotunda. But on this day, September 11, 2001, only hours after the terrorist attacks on New York City and on Washington, our elected officials stood as one, singing “God Bless America” as a show of support in our country’s darkest hour. The song was originally written for a World War I comedy musical. It inspired Woody Guthrie to write his own musical response, which became a patriotic standard in its own right. And its performance by one of America’s most beloved vocalists helped to sell millions of war bonds – and guided a hockey team win the Stanley Cup. Irving Berlin was already a successful Broadway writer and composer when, in 1918, he was drafted and told to report to Long Island’s Camp Upton. Although he was prepared to serve his country in any way possible, he was not prepared for 5:00 a.m. reveille.

While in camp, he composed a song based on his experiences, called “Oh How I Hate To Get Up In the Morning.” The song reached the camp officers, who decided to put Berlin’s talents to better use. In exchange for Berlin being allowed to work late and sleep later, he would write and compose music for an all-soldier comedy show, Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, which would help raise money for an on-base community house. “God Bless America” was among the songs that were part of Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, and Berlin planned to use that song for the finale. The title was inspired by Berlin’s mother, who with her family escaped from the Russian pogroms in 1893. As a child, Berlin remembered his mother often saying “God Bless America.” “And not casually, but with emotion that was almost exaltation,” he later wrote. But the solemn, reverent “God Bless America” did not fit in a ribald comedy musical, and after a few performances, the song was removed from the show. We now fast forward to 1938.

If you were a fan of popular music in the late 1930’s, the most popular female singer at that time was vocalist Kate Smith. Smith’s career began in the 1920’s, performing on Broadway in such musicals as Honeymoon Lane and Flying High. A few years later, she was hosting her own radio shows, and recording million-selling 78’s for the Columbia label. With her ebullient personality and stunning contralto voice, Smith rivaled Bing Crosby as the country’s most popular vocalist. At one point, she even owned a professional basketball team, the Kate Smith Celtics. With heightened tensions and war breaking out throughout Europe, Smith needed a patriotic song for her radio show. She and her manager Ted Collins visited Berlin’s music studio in New York City, and asked the famed songwriter if he had anything that was both patriotic and reverent.

Berlin reached into a file drawer and pulled out “God Bless America.” Berlin changed some of the lyrics from his original 1918 composition, replacing “from the green fields of Virginia / to the gold fields out in Nome” with “From the mountains to the prairies / To the oceans white with foam.” After some other minor adjustments, he gave the song to Collins and Smith. On Armistice Day, November 11, 1938 (what we now call Veterans Day), Smith told her radio audience about the song and her reasons for performing it that night. “This year, with the war clouds of Europe so lately threatening the peace of the entire world, I felt I wanted to do something special – something that would not only be a memorial to our soldiers – but would also emphasize just how much America means to each and every one of us … The song is ‘God Bless America’; the composer, Mr. Irving Berlin. When I first tried it over, I felt, here is a song that will be timeless – it will never die – others will thrill to its beauty long after we are gone.

In my humble estimation, this is the greatest song Irving Berlin has ever composed … As I stand before the microphone and sing it with all my heart, I’ll be thinking of our veterans and I’ll be praying with every breath I draw that we shall never have another war…” With that, she performed “God Bless America” for the first time. She had invited Berlin to attend the show, but the shy composer graciously declined. After the broadcast, however, the phones at Berlin’s music publishing company were flooded with calls and requests, asking for “that new song Kate Smith just sang.” He then went to Smith’s broadcast studio, where the singer was performing the same radio show – this time on a three-hour delay for the West Coast audiences. As the show ended, Smith brought Berlin up to the stage, and hugged him. Smith performed “God Bless America” every week on her radio show, selling nearly 400,000 pages of sheet music. On March 21, 1939, she recorded both that song and “The Star Spangled Banner” for RCA Victor, which became an instant hit. Both the Democratic and Republican parties used the song as their 1940 convention themes.

And as the United States entered the Second World War, the song became a beacon of hope for soldiers and sailors overseas – and for their families at home. This clip from the motion picture This Is The Army recreates Kate Smith’s initial radio performance, and the impact it had on its listeners. So stirring was the performance, that for several years Irving Berlin gave Kate Smith the exclusive right to perform and record “God Bless America.” In fact, during World War II Smith used her fame and exposure to sell more than $600 million in War Bonds, more sales than any other performer. While “God Bless America” helped her sell War Bonds, Irving Berlin donated all his royalties for “God Bless America”, in perpetuity, to the Boy Scouts of America. Smith donated her performance royalties, in turn, to the Girl Scouts of America. Not everyone was originally behind “God Bless America,” however. Some people were bothered that the song was written by a Jewish immigrant. Others felt that the song was too mawkish, mixing politics with religion. Songwriter Woody Guthrie went one step further – after hearing “God Bless America” one time too many, he composed what he felt would be an appropriate answer.

Guthrie’s original song had the refrain “God blessed America for me,” but in time that lyric was changed to “This land was made for you and me.” Ironically, Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” has become, along with “God Bless America,” one of our country’s favorite anthems. “God Bless America” was re-released over the years – sometimes with Smith’s original 1939 version, other times with a new recording. In 1947, she re-recorded “God Bless America” with a B-side of “Bless This House” on MGM Records. In 1959, she released an LP called Kate Smith Sings God Bless America. On November 2, 1963, a Kate Smith concert performance, which contained “God Bless America,” was recorded by RCA Victor and released as Kate Smith at Carnegie Hall. The Carnegie Hall version of “God Bless America” was released as the flip side of the John F. Kennedy tribute song “In The Summer Of His Years”, which was released one week after the Kennedy assassination. In the 1970’s, “God Bless America” achieved a new form of popularity – as a hockey anthem.

In order to invigorate his hockey team, Philadelphia Flyers vice president Lou Scheinfeld replaced the opening game rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” with Kate Smith’s immortal classic. The Flyers won that first game, a 6-3 thrashing of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and “God Bless America” became a good luck charm for the Flyers. On four occasions, Kate Smith was actually chauffeured from her home in New York City to the Philadelphia Spectrum, and stepped onto the ice to sing“God Bless America” for the Broad Street faithful. One performance, on May 19, 1974, spurred the Flyers to a 1-0 victory over the Boston Bruins – Philadelphia’s first win in a Stanley Cup final. Smith also performed on May 13, 1975, as the Flyers defeated the New York Islanders 4-1 to take their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship. Whether “God Bless America” was sung live, or whether it was played on tape, the Philadelphia Flyers won 63 games, against only 15 losses and three ties with their musical good-luck charm. Both Smith and Berlin were honored for their contributions to the world of music.

In 1955, Berlin received a gold medal from President Dwight Eisenhower, in recognition of his services in composing patriotic songs for the country, including “God Bless America.” In 1982, President Ronald Reagan honored Kate Smith with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his speech, Reagan recalled his own personal feelings toward Smith’s music in general, and “God Bless America” in particular. “It’s been truly said that one of the most inspiring things that our GI’s in World War II in Europe and the Pacific, and later in Korea and Vietnam, ever heard was the voice of Kate Smith. The same is true for all of us … Those simple but deeply moving words, “God bless America,” have taken on added meaning for all of us because of the way Kate Smith sang them. Thanks to her they have become a cherished part of all our lives, an undying reminder of the beauty, the courage and the heart of this great land of ours.

In giving us a magnificent, selfless talent like Kate Smith, God has truly blessed America.” When Kate Smith passed away in 1986, a clip from the motion picture This Is The Army appeared on every TV newscast – a clip of Smith singing “God Bless America.” And when Irving Berlin passed away in 1989, at the age of 101, a small group of mourners outside his New York City apartment serenaded his legacy with a spontaneous rendition of “God Bless America.” Have a happy and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend. For more information on the life of Kate Smith, including her involvement with “God Bless America,” visit the Kate Smith Commemorative Society homepage.

Chuck Miller Irving Berlin - God Bless America Lyrics | SongMeanings Irving Berlin God bless America, land that I love Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with the light from above From the mountains to the prairies To the oceans white with foam God bless America, my home sweet home From the mountains to the prairies To the oceans white with foam God bless America, my home sweet home God bless America, my home sweet home "God Bless America" as written by Irving Berlin Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing Oldest First 0 General Comment[Wikipedia] Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a review called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. The lyrics at that time included the line, "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America..." In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was a Jewish immigrant from Siberia, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song" and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith.

The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States. In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical This Is the Army along with other Berlin songs. Manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for redistribution to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the USA. Woody Guthrie disliked the song, and wrote "This Land Is Your Land", originally titled "God Blessed America For Me", as a response to "God Bless America". "This Land Is Your Land" has also often been proposed as an American national anthem. American Anthems: God Bless America : History God Bless America History | Lyrics | Irving Berlin History The unofficial national anthem of the United States was composed by an immigrant who left his home in Siberia for the USA when he was only five years old.

The original version of "God Bless America" was written by Irving Berlin (1888-1989) during the summer of 1918 at Camp Upton, located in Yaphank, Long Island, for his Ziegfeld-style revue, Yip, Yip, Yaphank. "Make her victorious on land and foam, God Bless America..." ran the original lyrics. However, Irving decided that the solemn tone of "God Bless America" was somewhat out of keeping with the more comedic elements of the show, so the song was laid aside. In the fall of 1938, as war was again threatening Europe, he decided to write a "peace" song. He recalled his lyrics of "God Bless America" from twenty years earlier, then made some alterations to reflect the different state of the world. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised "God Bless America" during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day, 1938. The song was an immediate sensation; the sheet music was in great demand.

Berlin's file of manuscripts & lyric sheets for this quintessentially American song includes manuscripts in the hand of his longtime musical secretary, Helmy Kresa (he himself did not read and write music), as well as lyric sheets, and corrected proof copies for the sheet music. These materials document not only the speed with which this song was revised, but also its author's attention to detail. The first proof copy is dated October 31, 1938; the earliest "final" version of the song is a manuscript dated November 2; and Kate Smith's historic broadcast took place on November 11. So, documents show the song's step-by-step evolution from the original version of 1918 to the tune we now know. The manuscripts mentioned above are part of the Irving Berlin Collection, a remarkable collection that includes his personal papers as well as the records of the Irving Berlin Music Corp. It was presented to the Library of Congress in 1992, by his three daughters, Mary Ellin Barrett, Linda Louise Emmet, and Elizabeth Irving Peters. What an amazing song! Isn't it wonderful that we have been so lucky to be connected with people who are able to put to words our deepest thoughts and emotions?

Irving Berlin was truly inspired. Close your eyes and listen to his message. Does it not touch your soul? Can't you just see crashing waves- the majesty of the mountains? All of the beautiful people working every day, alive and free because of the dream of our beloved Founding Fathers? As this song is being broadcasted through out the world on various occasions, there is this incredible overwhelming desire to jump up and sing with all the energy of the soul, knowing that if we did, the choirs of Heaven would be singing right along with us! Our people love our country, our Lord loves our country, and as long as we continue to fight for our gift of love and freedom, we will continue to enjoy the blessings of this, our sacred nation. Support our sponsors:

Question: Who wrote the song "God bless America"?
Answer: Irving Berlin